Pure Emotions Photography Lounge

We won Bride's Choice Awards for 2012!!!

2012-01-19T11:16:00.002-05:00

I want to thank all of our amazing clients that contributed to writing stellar reviews about Pure Emotions Photography and won us this years Bride's Choice Awards for the third year in a row!!!

The artist in me would not be able to do what I do if it wasn't for the amazing couples that come into my life and entrust me with one of the most important day in theirs. I am so grateful to be able to do what I love more than just about anything else on the planet as my profession every single day.

2011 was filled with amazing things for us. We were published on Lemon and Lavendar. We were featured in Rock N Roll Bride. We were featured in 3 different spots in the inspiration boards for Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine !! We recieved two print publications in Pin Up America Magazine, one of them a 2 page spread and the other, a full 4 pages!!! We recieved Bride's Choice Awards in 2011. And, we recieved a print publication in the Don Cesar Saint Petersburg Wedding Guide. There are many other smaller things we were also included in.

The point of mentioning all of these wonderful accomplishments is to say that I'm not comfortable here. I want to continue to grow and become even better. There are so many areas that offer room for improvement and I aspire to get better and more creative and more unique each and every year. My clients inspire me and I can't help but hope that I inspire them a little bit too.

Our Website

2011-10-18T08:10:00.000-04:00

Hello! If you've come to our blog and would love to see our website, filled with beautiful images and full weddings, just click on the link right over there ----->

At the bottom of this page, just click on OLDER POSTS to keep seeing more of our photos! Enjoy!

Emily and Les's Engagement Reveal: Tampa Wedding and Engagement Photographer

2011-06-22T19:50:00.002-04:00

Emily and Les are from Texas and they are flying in for their Florida wedding on July 2nd which will take place in Anna Maria Island. While they were here a couple of months ago, they left an entire day open in their schedule to do engagement photos with us!

We took photos at the University of Tampa and at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor. Emily looks at Les with a love and trust in her eyes that is absolutely unique and breathtaking. I feel so honored to be entrusted with their love story and I really can't wait to photograph their wedding in a few short days!

Please enjoy the slideshow for Emily and Les's engagement photos. Feel free to turn your speakers on and press play when you're ready! Enjoy!

Cortney and Jerry's Country Engagement Sneak Peek - Tampa Wedding and Engagement Photographer

2011-06-13T02:52:00.004-04:00

Cortney and Jerry wanted to do something a bit different than my usual style for their engagement photos. They wanted something reflective of their personalities with a Western/Country themed location. We spent a lot of time searching for the perfect backdrop and finally we hit the jackpot when Cortney lucked upon a really awesome place.

Jerry, like a lot of grooms isn't a huge fan of getting his photo taken but he was very cooperative and we were able to get some fantastic shots! This is just a sneak peek for now of some of our favorites from their engagement session, so enjoy!

We normally do the ring shot on the wedding day but I just had to grab this one during the engagement session for it's unique scale! :-) Isn't her ring absolutely gorgeous!?!

For this shot, we were almost out of daylight so we put an off camera flash behind Cortney and Jerry to rim light them and separate them from the dark background.

Until next time...

Melissa and Nathan's Wedding Sneak Peek : Tampa Wedding Photographer

2011-06-07T14:51:00.007-04:00

Melissa and Nathan flew in from New York for a wedding at the Grand Hyatt in Tampa. Their guests flew in from all over the place to be a part of their big day. You may remember Melissa and Nathan from the fabulous IKEA engagement session we did with them a few months back.

Melissa and Nathan opted to do a first look and it was absolutely beautiful! More details and information coming soon. But for now, here are a few sneak peek photos from their special day!

Ingrid and Emrah "The rain can't hold us down" Tampa Engagement and Wedding Photographer

2011-06-06T18:15:00.003-04:00

Ingrid and Emrah flew into Florida from another country to get married here. Since they were only here for a few days and had hired me to photograph their wedding, they also wanted to squeeze an engagement session in. The only day we could do it during their stay, mother nature decided to give us the worst weather of the entire year.

So, we decided to turn their engagement session that was planned for outside at a beautiful park into a studio engagement session. I have to say that shooting an engagement session in a studio was a challenge since I am such a compositional and artistic photographer. But, the moments and close up shots that we were able to get in the studio were awesome between Ingrid and Emrah! These two love one another so much!

Please click play on the slideshow to view their photos.

Published!!

2011-04-11T10:13:00.003-04:00

Happy Monday everyone! This morning, Lemon and Lavender, a popular and fabulous blogsite published Melissa and Nathan's fun IKEA engagement session!!! I am so happy that they got featured because as a photographer, this is one of my favorite sessions. It was fun and different and most importantly, Melissa and Nathan were completely in love and were able to fill all the inbetween moments themselves.

To see the feature, just click here!

Tampa Engagement Photographer : IKEA : Melissa and Nathan's Reveal

2011-04-10T12:00:00.004-04:00

Melissa and Nathan contacted us to photograph their wedding for May of 2011. They're planning their entire wedding from New York, where they both live. They had already done an engagement session with a local NY photographer that encompassed the city that they both love.

So, when they decided to book us for an engagement session when they flew into town to meet with and select other vendors for their wedding, we knew we wanted to do something different and unique. Melissa and Nathan's Manhattan apartment is decked out in furniture from IKEA and they both have a young spirited attitude and love to have fun together. So, we decided to call in a favor with one of our friends at IKEA to get permission to do their engagement session there.

We are the first photographers in our area to do an engagement session at IKEA and we were only able to find 3 other sessions blogged about an IKEA engagement session anywhere in the world! So, we just love how unique this shoot was!

We had an absolute blast. We took photos all over the place and did silly things. This was one of my favorite engagement sessions ever!

We hope you enjoy the full reveal slideshow!!

Tampa Wedding Photographer : Natalie and Deb's Hindu Prep and Ceremony

2011-03-23T18:22:00.003-04:00

Natalie and Deb had a couple of days of wedding festivities. It all began on a Friday with Natalie's Mehndi ceremony which you can see a few posts below! On Saturday, the morning started early with the preparation for the Hindu ceremony and then led into the Baraat which was followed by the Hindu Ceremony. Later that afternoon, Natalie and Deb changed into American attire for their American ceremony which was followed by a full reception.

The following photos are from the Hindu prep and ceremony. Photos of the American ceremony and reception coming soon!

Until next time...

Tampa Wedding Photographer: Sneak Peeks!!

2011-03-01T22:34:00.007-05:00

Hello out there! We have been shooting non-stop recently and I am in the process of editing all kinds of amazing sessions! I wanted to post a few photos from each shoot that I've been editing because I am so excited about our new work!

First up, we have Britt's Bridal photos! Britt and Josh are already married but contacted me because she wanted to get back in her one of a kind, gorgeous wedding gown and have us take some artistic photos of her! I was able to get the amazing Tampa Museum of Art to let us come in 2 hours before they opened up for part 1 of this shoot! Here are a couple teasers!

Then, on another night, Britt and her husband Josh got dolled up again.. this time she wore her hair up and wore gold shoes instead of pink! I absolutely love how fabulous Britt looked! We did part 2 completely at night time to get some really artistic, dramatic photos!

Next up, we have Jennifer's Maternity photos! She came from Orlando to have us photograph her and she brought her husband, Tim and their adorable little girl, Ky with her! Here are a couple sneak peeks! Jen looks so beautiful and we can't wait to photograph the newborn baby boy!

Next up, we have Julie and Scottie's wedding! We actually are done editing their photos but they're not coming for their reveal until Mid March so we're keeping them a surprise until then! Julie and Scottie booked us way in advance for their beautiful wedding at Lange Farm in Dade City, FL. I looked forward to this wedding for almost a year and a half and it was so beautiful!

Next up, we have Missy and Barry's engagement photos! We're going to be shooting their wedding in May! They brought their Great Dane, Gracie for a few photos and we had a blast!

Next up, we have the beautiful Nina. Nina was married out of the country and Carnival Cruise Lines took her bridal photos. She wanted something a bit more artistic and more beautiful photos in her wedding dress so she got us to take some amazing images of her in her beautiful Demitrios bridal gown! We also made a pit stop at the State Fair, where her husband Larry met up with us and joined in a few photos. The official batmobile was there this year and since we shot our bride Kori in the batcopter last year, it was only natural we'd shoot Nina and Larry with the Batmobile..

Next up.. Boudoir.. and you don't have to close your eyes for these tasteful images. We recently launched our boudoir company.. Boudoir Bellas Photography ( www.BoudoirBellas.com ) and we decided to start offering studio boudoir sessions in addition to our luxury location shoots! Miss W. was our first studio bella and we had a blast shooting her!

Last but not least, I finally got around to editing some photos of a beautiful bride and groom that we had the pleasure of photographing in Las Vegas! I absolutely love these photos!

Until next time.. we hope you enjoyed your stay in our photo lounge!

Tampa Wedding Photographer : Don Cesar Wedding : Julie and Flo : Wedding Reveal

2011-02-25T13:34:00.006-05:00

Julie and Flo already had a wedding photographer when they found us and Julie knew she wanted our artistic vision for her wedding day after she met us. So, in addition to having already hired Shakespeare Photography, Julie also hired us to photograph her lavish, Bling themed 10 year vow renewal.

Julie and Flo have been married for 10 wonderful years but the first time around, they were unable to afford their dream wedding. After many successful years as business owners and a lifetime of loving one another through the good times and the bad, Julie and Flo decided to have their dream wedding/vow renewal at the beautiful Don Cesar resort in St. Pete Beach. Julie spent over a year planning her wedding down to the tiniest of details. Her theme was: BLING but elegant.

Since her wedding, Julie has went on to open her own AMAZING event planning business, Chic Designs and Fabulous events! She truly has an amazing eye for detail and she put together the majority of the ideas and concepts for her own beautiful wedding!

Click play on the slideshow below to see the awesome photos from this wedding! There were so many amazing details that we just had to show off so this slideshow is kind of long and features almost 300 images!!

Julie put so much thought into every little detail for her wedding, including hiring a spectacular events company to come out and set up Miami Style furniture for the cocktail hour. Timless, elegant Damask touches were accented throughout their entire wedding and really helped to set the scene.

Julie wore a sexy, form fitting wedding dress for the cocktail hour and all of the photos we took before that. Then Julie changed into a beautiful wedding gown from Demetrios Bridal (but altered to have her personality infused into the dress design) for her evening candlelight ceremony on the courtyard steps of the Don Cesar. The love in her eyes as she walked down the aisle was reminiscent of the 10 years they had shared together. Then, they partied the night away with their friends and family in the Grand Ballroom at the Don Cesar.

The head table had over 30 seats and again FishHawk rocked it out with over 18,000 red roses on the head table alone! I should also mention that Stephanie from FishHawk lined the ceremony aisle with over 54,000 white rose petals. It truly was out of this world and we recommend her for floral designs and elegant floral touchs hands down after having had the honor to work with her for this event!

No details went forgotten. Julie had her programs, thank you cards, menu cards and invitations all done by "Flamboyant Designs Couture" (www.flamboyantdesignscouture.com) and they did an amazing job and added that perfect elegant touch of BLING to each item.

Natalie at Chic Sweets did an amazing job on the candy table. Everything was personalized to put the special "Julie and Flo" touch on it including the BLING factor and their monogram. More detail shots showing off individual parts of the candy table to come later! Did I mention it was quite tasty? Thanks Chic Sweets for sending us home with an awesome goodie bag!

That's all for now! We truly hope you enjoyed the slideshow!

Tampa Engagement Photographer : Sneak Peek : Melissa and Nathan

2011-02-10T16:58:00.005-05:00

Melissa and Nathan contacted us to photograph their wedding for May of 2011. They're planning their entire wedding from New York, where they both live. They had already done an engagement session with a local NY photographer that encompassed the city that they both love.

So, when they decided to book us for an engagement session when they flew into town to meet with and select other vendors for their wedding, we knew we wanted to do something different and unique. Melissa and Nathan's Manhattan apartment is decked out in furniture from IKEA and they both have a young spirited attitude and love to have fun together. So, we decided to call in a favor with one of our friends at IKEA to get permission to do their engagement session there.

We are the first photographers in our area to do an engagement session at IKEA and we were only able to find 3 other sessions blogged about an IKEA engagement session anywhere in the world! So, we just absolutely love how unique this shoot was!

We had an absolute blast. We took photos all over the place and did silly things. This was one of my favorite engagement sessions ever! I'm saving some of the best photos for the big reveal but here are just a few awesome photos for the sneak peek! Hope you LOVE them as much as we do!!

Until next time...

Wedding Wire Reviews

2011-01-26T15:13:00.002-05:00

Our clients leave the most awesome feedback for us! If you want to read some of the things past clients have had to say about us, you can find us on Wedding Wire!

Natalie's Mehndi Ceremony

2011-01-10T22:37:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone and Happy New Year! I've been horrible about blogging and I'm going to work really hard to remedy that by posting loads of stuff that we've been shooting over the past few months! Instead of loading down the blog with hundreds of individual images that have to load, we've decided to start doing these rockin' slideshows to keep things neat and more entertaining! This is the first one and I hope you all enjoy it!

Natalie and Deb came to me from New York and hired me for their 2 day Hindu and American ceremony events. It all got kicked off with the Mehndi ceremony and here are some of our favorite photos from this awesome day!

Until next time..

Tampa Wedding Photography: Jen and Mike's Wedding

2010-06-30T19:37:00.003-04:00

Jen and Mike were married at the Tampa Marriott Waterside, a beautiful venue nestled in a great location with awesome views of the water. They decided to do a first look and Jen was overwhelmed with emotion. As she walked up to Mike, I could feel the love beating in her heart. And, as he stood, waiting for her to tap him on the shoulder, I could feel the anticipation and the emotion swelling inside of him.

Jen and Mike gave us a couple of hours with them on the wedding day to take pictures of just the two of them and their wedding party so we were able to walk around outside and set up in various areas inside the hotel and get a lot of great shots.

Here are a couple of teaser photos followed by their highlight wedding slideshow movie!

Here is Jen and Mike's wedding reveal slideshow! Hope you enjoy!

Elspeth and Miguel Engagement Session Sneak Peek

2010-05-27T13:09:00.002-04:00

Latanya and I had the honor of photographing an amazing couple recently for their engagement photos. We bonded instantly with them as people as well as clients and we really wish they were getting married locally so we could shoot their wedding as well!

Elspeth attended the Brides Against Breast Cancer VIP night a couple of months ago and she was the highest bidder in the silent auction for my photography package that I donated for the cause. So, shooting this session, knowing that her session fee was going to such an amazing cause made me all warm and fuzzy inside!

Most of you know, I don't really do the whole traditional photos and park scene because my work is more bold and artistic and urban. But, some times we need to step outside of our comfort zone and try something new. These photos are quite different from my usual but that's part of why I love them so much.

Here are a few quick sneak peeks! Hope you enjoy!

Until next time.....

Trash the Dress at the Florida State Fair!

2010-05-19T16:42:00.004-04:00

Kori met us at the Florida State Fair after we all spent several hours stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and were terribly late getting started. But, it forced us to be more creative once we quickly lost all available daylight. It was a frigid evening and Kori was quite cold but we did our best to warm her up inbetween shots and she was a real trooper! We had a lot of fun and got some awesome, creative shots and we didn't really even hurt the dress that much! :-)

As always, here are my favorite photos from the shoot!

I get permission to shoot at awesome places and to use interesting things for my photo shoots sometimes. Many of my clients have kind of come to expect it and while it may not always be possible, we often are able to gain access to somewhere really cool for some awesome photos or convince people to let us use things.

A trainer was out training this beautiful horse and I got him to stop for a minute to allow us to get a couple beautiful bridal shots of Kori with the horse. This is my favorite one!

Then we headed into the barn for some photos real quick while we still had beautiful daylight wrapping inside.

And everyone knows how much I love COLOR! So outside we went to play and roam around at the fair and discover the vibrant colors everywhere! I felt like a kid in a candy store!

The guy who was running the ride was really hesitant to let Kori on the swing with her big poofy dress but a lil' convincing did the trick!

And on to another ride we go! Watching Kori hold on tight to her veil and scream was quite amusing!

Ok, so you remember the helicopter that was flying over Kori's head for those perfectly timed shots a few photos back? That is the official batcopter that was used in the 1960's TV series of Batman. They had it at the fair as an attraction! The guy who was running it wanted to know if he could take a picture of Kori. My bargaining chip was that if he got us out on the tarmac and let us shoot some photos while they were refueling the Batcopter that I'd let him take her photo. It was a win-win situation although I think I got the sweeter end of the deal! :-)

Did I mention there were tons of people in line waiting to get on the historic Batcopter? They all thought we were celebrities or something since we were granted access out on the tarmac for the shoot. It was pretty awesome!

And then as the light died, the pretty fair lights came on and I felt like I was in heaven. We've spent so much time recently experimenting with night time wedding shots and gotten quite good at it so we were well prepared for this when the time came. I absolutely love how Kori stands out in the scene of crowded people. She sure is a stunning bride!

Hands down - this is my favorite shot of the day. The motion was perfect, the lighting, everything... just adore it!! :

Loved the reflection of the fair in the water from across the fairgrounds. Absolutely beautiful!

Thanks again Kori for rockin' it out with us at the Florida State Fair in your wedding dress! We had a blast and you were awesome to photograph, as always!!!

Until next time....

Jamee's Maternity Photo Sneak Peek

2010-04-18T23:34:00.002-04:00

Latanya and I had so much fun yesterday shooting Jamee's Maternity Photos out on location. I'll do more of a write up later but I just had to share 1 photo for now! Baby Kylee is making her way into the world! I can't wait to shoot the newborn photos!

Julie and Flo : Don Cesar Wedding : Sneak Peek

2010-03-23T14:31:00.009-04:00

Hi everyone! I haven't blogged in forever! However, I have put up a brand new website with tons of fresh, new images in case you haven't noticed! Over the next few weeks, I plan to blog tons of stuff we've edited over the past 3 months!

I guess you'd like to see this sneak peek now, right? :-)

Julie sent everyone their wedding invitations in this beautiful box:

Their wedding rings with the invitation that came in the above box (More photos of the invitation where the invitation is the main focus to come in the big reveal!)

Julie's shoes for the ceremony and reception:

Julie's ceremony wedding gown:

Julie's girls all had the cutest flip flops with their initials on them!

A couple of photos of Julie and Flo right after their First Look:

Julie had seen us do this shot before and she wanted it too:

Then we headed over to the cocktail hour set up to get some great detail shots. Julie hired an amazing company, Signature Events, to make her cocktail hour look Miami Chic with beautiful white lounge furniture. Signature Events also are responsible for beautiful touches to the reception room decor. We loved the details! We have tons that will come in the big reveal but here are just 2 for now:

My abstract take on the set up -

And a normal shot that showcases the entire set-up

We let Simon and his beautiful wife Becky shoot the party of the cocktail hour and we went on to get some other great detail shots of the ceremony set up and reception set up.

Fishawk Florists did an amazing job and lined the ceremony aisle with over 54,000 white rose petals. It truly was out of this world

As I mentioned before, the ceremony was very touching. This is one of my favorite shots. The evening light caught a tear as it fell down Julie's cheek and when I saw this image pop up on the back of the camera, it made me quite emotional too.

Staci Mandikas from Unique Event Design was the wedding coordinator for this marvelous affair. She kept everything running smoothly and pulled all of Julie's visions together and even infused some ideas of her own to inspire Julie to think bigger. She went out of her way to make sure time for set up shots was part of the wedding day schedule. We, of course, LOVE planners who do this because we love having time to shoot the amazing details that our clients work so hard to put together and spend so much of their wedding budget on!

We took many reception detail shots because there were SO MANY awesome details to shoot!!! Here are just a few for now..

The head table had over 30 seats and again Fishawk rocked it out with over 18,000 red roses on the head table alone! We like this abstract shot showing off the depth of field of the chairs lined up

No details went forgotten. Julie had her programs, thank you cards, menu cards and invitations all done by "Flamboyant Designs Couture" (www.flamboyantdesignscouture.com) and they did an amazing job and added that perfect elegant touch of BLING to each item

The Grand Ballroom at the Don Cesar is so stunning and beautiful. Quinn Noonan, the Don Cesar Catering Coordinator was so awesome to work with and really went above and beyond to make sure we were able to get some great detail shots and that her staff got out of the way when we needed the room for some set up shots.

The wedding cake was absolutely stunning and beautiful. Many photos of the cake to come but here is one I liked because of it's artistic value. I held the drape in my left hand and steadied the camera in my right to create the draping at the bottom. I just adore it! The amazing and talented Pastry Chef, Tara Bishop of the Don Cesar is responsible for this beauty!

Julie and Flo got to come into the reception room and see it before their guests were allowed in. Her reaction was a huge smile followed by many tears of joy. In that moment, we got to see her dream wedding come true before our very own eyes. The wedding coordinator, Staci and I were both in tears. It was beautiful and special and most importantly, it was genuine. I'll never forget that moment as Julie grabbed Flo's hand just a little tighter, looked at him and a tear fell down her face because all of her hard work and meticulous planning had finally paid off. Her dream had just come true with the man she has loved for a decade.

A touching moment where Julie's daughter was afraid she was going to be in my picture and was about to leave but I told her not to go because she was adding something special to the photos as Julie got her make-up touched up during the reception.

I must say.. I adore tattoos! I grabbed this shot of Julie while the make-up artist was changing brushes! LOVE IT!!

Natalie at Chic Sweets did an amazing job on the candy table. Everything was personalized to put the special "Julie and Flo" touch on it including the BLING factor and their monogram. More detail shots showing off individual parts of the candy table to come later! Did I mention it was quite tasty? Thanks Chic Sweets for sending us home with an awesome goodie bag!

That's all for now! We hope you enjoyed the photos we took at this amazing wedding and we can't wait to share the rest with you soon!

There were many other vendors who we would like to mention really quickly as well. We don't want to leave any of these lovelies out!

Breezin' Entertainment had beautiful music for both the cocktail hour and the ceremony. While we weren't there to hear them perform, we heard they did an amazing job!

The Don Cesar handled the bartending and catering as well as the wedding cake. Everyone raved about how delicious the food was and the drinks looked quite tasty! Their staff was on point, running all over the place to the very last minute to make everything just perfect.

Julie's personal hair stylists Lazzaro and Jorge were so much fun and of course, they made an already beautiful woman look magazine worthy!

Her make-up was done by Christy McDonie of Tampa Bay Makeup Artist. Stunning work Christy!

Arctic Ice brought out a beautiful ice sculpture for the cocktail hour.

Jose Orterro of "Just Outstanding Entertainment" had the dance floor packed before dinner was even served. His DJ rig was bigger than my living room! He had awesome lights and he played a rockin' slideshow that featured some awesome music videos as well as photos from Julie and Flo's first "I do" ten years ago.

Reverend Tom Green officiated and did a beautiful job. He really seemed to understand the special connection between Julie and Flo and his words were touching!

And last but not least, Celebrations of Tampa Bay came out and did the video of the wedding. I've yet to see any video but I am sure they did a great job. They were easy to work with and be around!

That's all folks! Until next time.....

Florida State Fair Contest Winners!

2010-02-04T16:23:00.003-05:00

Hi Ladies! Thank you all so much for your entries. It was a pleasure reading your stories. I wish we could give away a session to everyone who entered because everyone had such great stories.

We had only one couple enter who was willing to wear their wedding dress and suit for the fair and this is what we most wanted so we have chosen Kori and Andrew to receive the free day after session at the State Fair. Kori and Andrew have had some tough times over the past year with our struggling economy and they're both total goofballs and we believe they'll have a great time at the fair and we'll be able to give them some great photos from their session. Plus, we shot their wedding recently and their ceremony was at night time so they didn't really get many shots of the two of them alone and we wanted to make sure they get those!

We also chose: Julie and Flo! Julie sent me such an awesome story and it sounds like her and Flo will be up for anything we throw at them. They're already married and will be renewing their vows after TEN YEARS in March. The love these two have for one another shone through the story that Julie sent me and I believe these two are going to let loose at the fair and have a great time. Every word she wrote bounced off of the screen and touched me and made me want to shoot them yesterday! So, I can't wait to do their couples photos! I hope all of my clients will love one another forever and stay together for a lifetime. Julie and Flo, after ten years, are well on their way and it doesn't seem like they're slowing down any time soon!

Thanks again to everyone who entered! We might be running another contest in the near future so be sure to check back on our blog!

Until next time...

Kori and Andrew Engagement Photos Sneak Peek

2010-01-28T17:22:00.004-05:00

Kori and Andrew are getting married in 2 days, on January 30th, 2010. Here are a few sneak peeks from their engagement session. It was freezing cold but bright as could be outside during our shoot. But Kori and Andrew were both troopers and we had a lot of fun! More to come later!

Andrew trying to mess Kori's playing up.. too cute for words..

Thanks for looking. Until next time..

Win a Free Couple's Shoot with us!

2010-01-25T19:13:00.007-05:00

Hey everyone. I just realized I am all caught up with my engagement sessions for the season and I noticed that the Tampa State Fair is coming in less than 2 weeks! I've always wanted to shoot some awesome, fun, flirty, artsy photos at the fair and am ready to do it up!

This applies to: Engagement, Trash the Dress or Day After Shoot or simply a couples shoot if you're already married and don't want to get your wedding dress dirty.

Even if you've already done engagement photos or day after photos with another photographer but you feel like you'd be a good match for this shoot, you're eligible so go ahead and write us!

Whoever wins has to be a fun couple that would love to play some games together for great shots and isn't afraid to get on some of the rides for a few shots.

We might choose 2 couples depending on how many entries we get.

If you want to win a free session, email me at PureEmotionsPhotography@gmail.com and tell me why you feel you and your fiance/spouse deserve to win and what kind of people you are. Be sure to enclose a couple of photos of the two of you as well.

Also, let me know which of the following dates would work best for you:
February 6th, 7th, 13th or 14th. If all would work, please let us know that all of them would work.

The winner will get a free 2-3 hour couple's shoot with us and it will include a DVD of 40 edited images with printing rights. Value- $500

Important: You must pay for the admission price of the state fair and bring a little extra money for food, rides and games.

We will pay for our own admission tickets to the fair.

I'd love to get an already married couple who want to play in their wedding attire and an engagement style couple so it's very possible 2 couples could win the contest.

Good luck! I can't wait to get some AMAZING photos for the lucky couple(s).

Christie's Boudoir Album

2010-01-22T15:11:00.003-05:00

Another boudoir album we custom designed. They should be coming in very soon. I can't wait to see them all printed up!

This is a 30 page, 10x10 custom designed coffee table album.

We start with the cover of the book. The left side wraps around the back of the book and the right side wraps around the front. Imagine a line straight down the middle wrapping the cover.

Then we get to the opening page. Left side will have a blank white page. Right side will be the opening page image.

Then we get to our 2 page spreads. Again, imagine a line down the middle for the fold in the book for the spreads.

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

Pages 8 and 9

Pages 10 and 11

Pages 12 and 13

Pages 14 and 15

Pages 16 and 17

Pages 18 and 19

Pages 20 and 21

Pages 22 and 23
(Will be back shortly)

Paages 24 and 25

Pages 26 and 27

Pages 28 and 29

Page 30 (will close out on left side with a blank white page on right side

Hope you enjoyed it. I absolutely LOVE this album!!

Sandra's Bpic Album

2010-01-20T12:31:00.000-05:00

I know. I am one of the worst bloggers in the world. It's been forever since I've posted anything. To say my fall-winter season was extremely busy seems like an understatement. I am still covered in thousands more photos to edit from the season so I haven't had the time to update my blog but I want to share a couple of things with my blog followers.

Many of you remember Danielle's boudoir album and loved it. I got so many emails about that grungy boudoir album. It worked well because of the setting but some times, it won't fit well and you need something more simply and sweet.

Here is a custom designed boudoir album that we made for Sandra! Hope you enjoy!

This is a 30 page, 8x8 boudoir album custom designed for Sandra by us.

This first image is the front cover and back cover (the right side is the front cover and the left side wraps around to the back of the book.)

When the book is first opened, there will be a blank white page on the left side and this will be Page 1 on the right side..

The following pages are called 2-page spreads. So the next will be pages 2 and 3, 4 and 5, etc.

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

Pages 8 and 9

Pages 10 and 11

Pages 12 and 13

Pages 14 and 15

Pages 16 and 17

Pages 18 and 19

Pages 20 and 21

Pages 22 and 23

Pages 24 and 25

Pages 26 and 27

Pages 28 and 29

And page 30 will be on the left side with a blank white page on the right side to close the book out.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Published on Rocknrollbride again!

2009-10-31T14:24:00.003-04:00

Kat at www.rocknrollbride.com published us again today. This time, she featured Jennifer's amazing goth themed bridal session. (Featured below this post). We are so honored to be published there again as we totally love rocknrollbride and could spend hours on there looking at everything over and over again! Kat chose a ton of our images to feature so if you have a minute, head on over there and check them out. It's a blog and by tomorrow, we might not be on page 1 anymore so here is a direct link to the post on rocknrollbride so you can visit it anytime!

http://www.rocknrollbride.com/2009/10/happy-halloween-gorgeous-goth/

Hope you enjoy them. And thanks to all of my clients for being so fabulous!

Published and Featured!!!

2009-10-23T08:20:00.002-04:00

I finally did it! So many of my clients have been telling me for so long to submit something of mine out into the world. I've been too afraid of the rejection and the criticism but I have recently started to grow in confidence about my abilities as a photographer. It doesn't hurt that I have amazing clients who always remind me how awesome they think my work is!

I've been following this amazing website.. www.rocknrollbride.com for what seems like forever now. I've always been so inspired by stuff that gets published on there. Being more artistically inclined in my own work, I've been moved by the off beat, awesomeness that the owner of the blogsite, Kat publishes on it.

I finally submitted something just a couple short days ago, Rebecca and Justin's amazing engagement session and Kat featured and published it on her blogsite this morning! She has hundreds, possibly thousands of loyal blogsite readers from all over the planet so for me, this is huge! Maybe next time, I'll submit something to a magazine. Haha, okay maybe not just yet! Maybe I'll start with a print competition for WPPI or something first. :-)

http://www.rocknrollbride.com/2009/10/emotional-theatrical/ is the direct link to the feature!

Since Halloween is around the corner....

2009-10-23T07:34:00.002-04:00

I thought I would share a bridal session I did around last Halloween for a wonderful past bride of mine, Jennifer who got married on Halloween in 2008. I've never blogged this before because I didn't even start blogging until this year.

Jennifer is beyond awesome in my book. She was willing to do anything we wanted her to do in her wedding dress and this session was BEFORE the wedding day! We just adore it when a bride gives us free creative control and completely trusts us and our artistic vision.

Jen got her amazing wedding dress from Brides Against Breast Cancer to support their cause. Unfortunately, the designer names weren't released to the brides who bought the dresses so we don't know who to credit for this ridiculously unique, awesome wedding dress but we do know that it made it's debut in a runway show in New York before Brides Against Breast Cancer picked it up.

(Side note) - As most of you are well aware, my mother passed away from Breast Cancer in early 2004. I cannot stress enough how amazing it is that a foundation like BABC exists in the over-saturated wedding market. Every gown given by a designer or another bride to BABC is a gown purchased from another bride in need and that money goes to try to find a prevention or cure to help other women like my mother, but who may still have a chance at survival.

Girls, don't let your dress hang in the closet for 20 years hoping your daughter will want to wear it. 20 years from now, it will be out of style and she most likely won't want to wear it. Instead, donate it to Brides Against Breast Cancer and help make someones wishes come true while giving back in an enormous way.

Okay, sorry for getting all mushy on you... back to Jennifer!!

Jen's connections with a friend in Mount Airy, North Carolina landed us at this awesome property FILLED with whimsical eye candy, cool props and an awesome stage for our shoot. Oh how I wish I could stumble on something like this here in Tampa, Florida. I'd be in heaven!

Here are some of our favs from Jen's amazing Bridal Session!!

We started off in a bamboo forest where I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Somehow or another, Latanya and Jen managed not to get bitten much but I was covered in bites. Not very fun but definitely worth it in the end!

Then we wandered over to this awesome gazebo, one of the most unique gazebo's I've ever seen in my entire life. We got some pretty sick stuff there.

And then into this abandoned shed...

And they even had a water windmill. We used a garden hose and held our hands over the nozzle to make a spray mist come out and the lady who owns the propery spun the wheel and hid out of sight. :-)

My infatuation with bold colors led me to use this awesome hutch

Then we headed off into another shed where we noticed a skull head and I just so happened to have a little lantern in the car so we decided to do something a bit more spooky since Jen was getting married on Halloween!

Jen is officially awesome for doing this next shot and totally rocking it out without a care in the world about how insane she looked or how much grease could leak onto her wedding dress before she got married! We love you Jen!

Then we found this awesome hallway of old doors and of course had to get some shots there!

And then we ran into this guest house area that was covered in ivy. So pretty and whimsical!

Last stop, we made our way to the train tracks. They were covered in sap and I didn't even want to sit on them in my regular street clothes but Jen plopped right down and put her bare bottom on the tracks so she wouldn't be sitting on the actual dress.

We hope you enjoyed these as much as we still do every time we look at them!

Until next time...

Boudoir Marathon : December 6th 2009

2009-10-14T01:03:00.005-04:00

FULLY BOOKED -- FULLY BOOKED -- FULLY BOOKED -- FULLY BOOKED

Sorry ladies, all spots have been filled!

Hey Ladies!!

We're doing it again! One final boudoir marathon for 2009! We weren't planning on having another one until 2010 but we had a few girls who wanted to do it so we've put together an amazing one! The photos will be done in time for Valentine's Day so all of you ladies who are already married can also give them as a gift. There are only 1 slot left out of 5!!!

Check out this amazing location! As always, I went above and beyond to make something amazing happen. We're getting this location for a steal with no added on commerical shoot fees and they're waiving the $300 cleaning fee for us! (More details at the bottom of the pictures!)

Photos taken by me on a quick walk through (non professional lighting)

House from the back:

Master bedroom. We will be bringing white comforters with us to replace over the brown ones

Main entrance

View from the boat house

Outside guest bedroom

Pool table room

The photos below were not taken by me. They are the house stock photos and I do not know who to credit for them as the photographers name was not listed.

Main house from front

Boat dock

Master Bathroom

Grand Staircase

Amazing kitchen

Side view of pool

View of pool from Cabana

Isn't that space ridiculously awesome? We think so!

We have free run of the place! We've really outdone ourselves with this one and anyone who signs up for this marathon is going to get some unique, original photos that not many ladies can say they've ever gotten for a boudoir session!

Hair/Make-up can be added on for an additional $75 with an amazing hair and make-up
artist or you can do them on your own or go to the MAC counter. I definitely recommend professional hair and make-up though as this location is straight out of a magazine and you should look like you are too!

If you have any questions, please email me. If you're on the fence, make the
jump! There's just 1 spot left and it's going to go fast. This house is
amazing and we're going to have a BLAST!!

PureEmotionsPhotography @ gmail.com

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Miss C.S. Boudoir Photo Reveal

2009-10-14T00:46:00.003-04:00

This is the final session from my June boudoir marathon. Some of you must be thinking I am a huge slacker because that marathon was 3 1/2 months ago. Well, I had 2 months to get them done originally and then all of the girls wanted extra photos edited and bought extra photos and albums so they had to wait a bit longer for me to edit all of the additional photos so I wouldn't fall behind on my other work.

Miss C.S. was great to shoot. She has a bit of a sassy, serious look that is both fierce and sexy. Her man is going to flip out on their wedding night when he sees these amazing pictures!

Hope you enjoy. These are my favorites out of the bunch!

I loved this next one in both color and black and white and couldn't decide!

This is that last shot, turned upside down and cropped. I think it's pretty cool!

These next 2 shots are the most risque in the bunch but they're still classy. I was playing with the reflections on the table in the foreground. :-)

Miss C.S. has amazing legs! I just had to get them broken down into a model pose.

And last shot. We will do artistic nudes as long as they are classy as we have a more upscale brand for boudoir. Any ladies who want to do something like this, just let us know!

Until next time.....

Danielle's Boudoir - Reveal~!

2009-10-13T13:20:00.000-04:00

This entry was originally posted on June 9th but I decided to bump it back up to the top because it's one of my favorite shoots from the year! Danielle's photos have been voted a favorite amongst most of our new boudoir client inquiries. They love that it's more than a shoot on a bed and it's pushing clients to think of creative, out of the box ideas for thier own shoots!

Original Text:
We had so much fun shooting Danielle's boudoir photos! They're finally done and I just got off the phone with Danielle and showed them to her in a private gallery on my website and she squealed the entire time! It is so rewarding to make someone feel beautiful and sexy when they see their photos! Her fiance is going to be one happy man on the wedding night! Danielle ordered a boudoir album too and we're going to start designing it as soon as she chooses the photos she wants in it! I can't wait to order it and get it in and show it off on my blog!

As usual, I have a hard time narrowing photos down to just 5-10 to show and this session was honestly too amazing to not show off the range of amazing photos we got!

We did a non-traditional boudoir session for the most part. We got a few bedroom shots but mostly, we did a Top Model kind of session with Danielle.

Hope you enjoy!

I just love this next photo with just a hint of her lips. It leaves the viewer imagining what the rest of this beautiful, sexy woman looks like:

We planned our timing perfectly for these terrace shots to take advantage of the sunset. We brought our studio strobes and brollyboxes with us and played with the lighting so we could keep the warmth and beauty of the sunset background.

We played with shadows for the next couple shots:

Danielle has the most amazing dimples!

I freaking love this shot:

I had to take a picture of just the view. We might make this shot the album cover since it sets the tone for the shoot:

We headed back to the room after we lost all the pretty sunset outside and Danielle changed outfits into a more bridal-esque ensemble. She rocked it out and looked totally cute and sexy!

A close up of that beautiful face!

Leaving something to the imagination again!:

Danielle's veil is so beautiful and we just had to use it in some of our shots!

I just love colored shoes!

The room had a pretty awesome shower so we went into the bathroom for some shots. Most of them are too sexy to post on the blog but Danielle did give me permission to post these 2 shots:

And I just love this one! She was drying off and Latanya actually snapped this photo through the shower glass on our way walking out of the bathroom. (I should note that Latanya and I took turns shooting this session so the work here is mixed between us. For those of you who don't know, Latanya is my dedicated second shooter for weddings and she helps me with all of my other shoots too.)

Then we got to go into this amazing wine cellar for photos! It has colored lights set on a timer in it and the lights change every couple of seconds. So, if you notice the colors change, it wasn't an inconsistency in our lighting. It's because the lights actually changed colors every couple seconds!

This is the only shot we got when the light turned into this awesome sunset looking colors. Unfortunately, Danielle had been laughing and we didn't get a "sexy" pose out of her with this lighting but I still loved the photo so I wanted to share it!

After the bar closed, we used it for some more photos!

Danielle's eyes are to die for in this next shot!

Rawr!

This wall was freaking awesome!

Last shot!

Until next time.......

My addiction to posting a million photos!!

2009-10-09T04:17:00.002-04:00

Most of my clients love that I post SO MANY photos on my blog! I truly am addicted to showing tons of my work that makes me happy when I look at them. I feel like it's like sharing a piece of my inner self. A lot of photographers just post their favorite 3-4 wow images on their blog and don't post a complete story. Every photo I take won't be a wow image but they connect the dots of the story and help to unfold it. I don't think I'll ever be the photographer that can pick just 3 or 4 pictures.

With that said, the photos take up a lot of room on my blog. Some times, I post 40 or 50 images from one event. So, I've decided to feature my absolute favorite images as solo shots and to put others in a collage board. These collage boards will be for cohesive images to all go together and it will just be one compressed file. They'll download faster which will be a plus for clients on slower computers.

This is the first one I've made and is a sneak peek into the next wedding photos I am going to be posting up on the blog!

Hope you dig it. I managed to get 8 unique photos into this one image design and it works for me because they're so cohesive. :-)

Until next time....

Erin and Brett : Wedding Photography Reveal

2009-10-09T03:24:00.003-04:00

Again, Erin and Brett... I am so sorry that it took me this long to blog your fabulous wedding pictures but I am so happy to finally be posting them!

Erin and Brett are goofy and funny and silly but so in love. The way they feed off of one another is amazing. I truly believe when I look at them together that they will be one of those couples that do last through everything that is thrown at them and that their love was meant to withstand the tests of time.

These are our favorite photos from Erin and Brett's big day!

The light streaming into the window was soft and beautiful and this portrait of Erin shows just how truly beautiful she is!

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Since Erin and Brett did a first look (posted below this entry), we had time to get some cool shots of the two of them alone before the ceremony. These are some of my favorites.

Erin and Brett had such a sweet ceremony and their pastor was hilarious. He told a lot of jokes and made me laugh a few times!

Erin's bridesmaid was touched by the ceremony..

At last!!!

I adored Erin and Brett's wedding cake so I took a million shots of it and they had some cute little details here and there too.

Erin and Brett's sweetheart table:

Mmmm yummy!

Love the favor boxes and how they're the same colors as the cake and the linens!

Kids can be so adorable. This little guy was the ring bearer and he was just too cute for words. He liked to pose for my camera and he liked to follow me around. I wish I could have taken him home with me!

Brett and his guitar..

Speaking of guitars, Erin and Brett used another guitar as their guest sign in book. We LOVE unique ideas like this. They're so fun to photograph and to display for years to come!

Here is my abstract take on a guest signing the guitar...

You can see the fathers reflection in the window giving his toast. I love how it makes it a different kind of shot.

And Erin got very emotional during this part

I went into the bar area and noticed that I could see Erin and Brett through these blinds and I just had to snap a photo. I was feeling so inspired to do different, artistic things with compositions and framing for this wedding!

Erin and Brett's first dance:

Brett's mother's eyes were tear filled during their entire mother/son dance. This shot gives me goosebumps every time I look at it.

Cute moment with the ring bearer and flower girl

All the safe shots were out of the way so that's when I started really going crazy, dragging the shutter, creating motion blur, thinking outside of the box. I think we got some pretty awesome stuff at this point..

The DJ.. saw this reflection in the window and took it..

Yes, that is their ring shot.. the rings are on the tuning bars of the guitar..

last shot..

I know this was a massive post. But we loved so many. That's why it took me so long to blog them because I knew it would take me forever to link them all! :-)

We hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as we enjoyed creating them!

Until next time....

Erin and Brett's First Look : Wedding Photography

2009-10-09T03:14:00.003-04:00

I have been meaning to post these for a long time but never got around to it and I wanted to share more first look pictures on the blog. Erin and Brett were so thrilled to see each other for the first time on their wedding day!

We were able to get some pretty cool portraits of them because we had tons of time and they were able to go straight into enjoying their reception because we did all of the family photos and wedding party photos before the ceremony too.

More pictures coming up from their wedding in the next blog post.

Without further ado.. I give to you.. Erin and Brett's first look...

Awwww, that brings back so many wonderful moments and emotions for me from their day and that special time they shared. Erin and Brett, although your photographer is a blog posting slacker, we loved these moments and we are so honored that we got to shoot your amazing wedding!

More coming right up!

Until next time...

Rebecca and Justin: Engagement Photo Reveal

2009-10-07T23:27:00.002-04:00

Rebecca and Justin did their engagement photos really close to their wedding date so we didn't get a chance to edit all of them before we shot their wedding. But, what an amazing journey it has been with them so far! Rebecca and Justin got all dolled up in 1950's wear for their engagement session and I got us into this awesome place to shoot at! Justin wore a Fedora and some awesome wingtip shoes and Rebecca went shopping online and got a couple of cute pin-up style dresses. I sent her to the amazing Amanda Craft for hair and make-up and they showed up looking unbelievable.

Rebecca and Justin came over tonight to see their photos. They were nervous because they are both overly critical of their own selves so they thought they would only like a couple pictures but they said they liked 41 out of 43! So, yay for that!

They smiled and giggled as they watched them on the slideshow in our living room and it made tears of happiness swell up in my eyes! Rebecca and Justin, we love you guys and we can't wait to do your wedding photo reveal, to shoot your day after/ trash the dress session in November and to design your amazing album!

Without further ado, I give to you.. the hot, smokin', rockin' awesomeness that is.. Rebecca and Justin!

Mwah!!

Until next time....

Eve and Dan - Wedding First Look - Saint John, Virgin Islands

2009-10-02T11:46:00.001-04:00

Eve and Dan flew Latanya and I into Saint Thomas for their destination wedding. From Saint Thomas, we took a ferry over to Saint John and spent the day capturing the love between these two. Eve's mother and father were the only guests for this small, intimate affair so we got to do a "first look" and had tons of time to go take pictures elsewhere.

These are just from their first look for now. More to come very soon so check back to see the entire reveal.

From atop the roof of Eve and Dan's gorgeous villa, I looked down and saw this stunning view of Saint John.

I knew I wanted to do the first look there but Eve said I'd have to convince Dan because he is deathly afraid of heights. The white part of the rooftop (the only flat part) was only about 5 feet wide and after much convincing, Dan agreed to stand about midway so about 3ft. This was far too close for me to frame them with the background in the shot so I climbed the slanted part of the roof (you can see a tiny piece of it in some of the photos). Dan teetered out and the poor guy was terrified but that all seemed to dissapear the moment Eve tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around and looked into her beautiful eyes.

I give to you, Eve and Dan's First Look!

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW !!!!!!!

Eve was frickin ridiculously adorable in this next photo! You can feel her excitement jump through the screen and grab you by the heartstrings!

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I did a vintage warmth edit to all of the first look photos but I especially loved it on the close ups of Eve and Dan. There are regular color pop versions of these also but I am choosing to show the vintage-y edits. :-)

Back to regular color..

And more vintage baby!

That's all folks.. Until next time..

Welcome to my photo lounge! - Please read this first! :)

2009-10-01T13:42:00.000-04:00

My hope is that you will relax and be able to enjoy the photos here. I'd love to know what you like and love so feel free to hit the comment button on any post to leave a comment!

I update my photo lounge way more often than my website so check back weekly!

P.S. At the end of every page on the bottom is a button that says "older posts." The older posts often times are only a few days or a week or two older so make sure to keep clicking on the older posts button on the bottom to see more. Or if there's a specific kind of photos you're interested in viewing, look on the left side of the screen under categories and click on the category you're interested in viewing!

Have fun, take your shoes off, put your feet up and relax. I hope you enjoy your time here!

Alina's Trash the Dress: Photo Reveal

2009-10-01T12:15:00.000-04:00

I have been waiting for so long to finally get to Alina's Trash the Dress photos and be able to edit them and now they are finally done! I just smile so big when I look at these pictures that I cannot contain the joy I feel and the accomplishment I feel with the transformation of them from their original state into that of artistic imagery.

Alina brought the energy on set and along with that, she brought a pair of awesome cowboy boots, some rockin Ed Hardy shoes, a colorful bicycle and some red heels and super fun sunglasses. It was because of the additional styling items that it added that perfect touch to this already amazing shoot.

We, after many months of playing tag with the owners, were able to shoot at this rockin' car junkyard and within it, there were so many photo opportunities. It was a blazing hot day, mid afternoon and the dirt was blowing all over the place and caused a haze in the air and was getting into my camera but we didn't care. We just kept shooting. I cleaned the camera, fixed the haze in photoshop and fell in love with these unique images.

Alina, thanks for being a trooper and bringing your energy to the shoot. We had so much fun shooting your wedding and then your Trash the Dress session. If you ever want to come back to Tampa and finish trashing it, let us know!!

Without further ado, I give to you... the reveal!!

(P.S. There's like a million photos and some I couldn't choose between b/w or color because I did extra enhancements to the b/w photos too so I am going to post both for some of them! :-) ....)

Hope you enjoy!

and the same one as above but in color. I couldn't make up my mind which one I liked better. I love them both for different reasons!

You would think this girl has modeling experience! I swear, she brought the hotness to the shoot and outshone the bright, sweltering sun!

Color or black and white again? Tough choice. Normally I always prefer color over b/w because color just pops to me but I did contrasty editing and made the black and whites skies almost black to bring mood into them, to create drama and to make Alina really pop out in the photos and it worked so I love them equally!!

Alina's white parasol was another perfect touch for a few awesome photos!

Alina has legs for days. Even in those cowboy boots. She held nothing back and did every crazy pose I asked her to do and it shows!

Alina's new hubby, Donald loves VW's so we spotted this gem out in the junkyard and snagged a photo with it just for him!

Pouting because her groom wasn't there on the day of the trash the dress session.. Alina's pout is soooooo frickin adorable!

Alina then broke the bike out of her tiny car and put it together and put on her Ed Hardy sneaks and we took a few shots right before we ran out of gas and called it a day...

Loved the shadow of her in this shot..

And a close up shot of those kickin shoes!

My favorite from the bicycle shots...

And riding into the horizon... last shot of the day..

That's all folks. Until next time......

Rebecca and Justin : Wedding Sneak Peek

2009-09-28T12:55:00.002-04:00

Rebecca and Justin's wedding totally rocked!! Rebecca was a stunning bride, which came as no surprise to me. She radiates beauty from the inside out. Justin was looking quite dapper in his Fedora which I gave him during the engagement shoot. I was so happy when he decided to wear it on the wedding day!

I'll tell more of their story when I post the full reveal.

For now, here are some teasers. Feel free to leave a rockin comment if you adore them!

Latanya totally rocked out this photo of the boys and I went in and did some artistic editing to it to make the boys look spotlighted and to add drama to the sky. We work so well together as a team:

The girls having fun:

Sweet love!!

Until next time....

Sandra: Boudoir Photo Reveal

2009-09-20T17:01:00.000-04:00

Sandra was part of my big marathon bash a couple of months ago. I finally got her photos all done up and am happy to share them with my blog fans! Sandra told me she JUST had a baby shortly before the shoot and I couldn't believe it. She is one hot mamma.

Sandra did these as an anniversary present because she's already married. There's always a good reason to give that special someone some sexy photos, ladies!

Here are my favs!!

Hope you enjoyed!! Until next time.....

Scott "Dude-Oir" Photo Reveal!

2009-09-19T23:51:00.000-04:00

Scott was also one of the two guys from the boudoir marathon a couple months back. He was so easy to photograph. He did everything I asked of him without question. He also modeled for us as a test subject.

Here are my favs from our shoot!

Last shot!

Hope you enjoyed! Until next time...

Jeremy : "Dude-oir" Photo Reveal

2009-09-18T16:40:00.000-04:00

As many of you might remember, I shot 2 guys during a boudoir marathon I did a couple months ago. Jeremy was one of those guys and he came out and modeled for me as a test subject. I don't know whether or not there's a market for "dude-oir" photos but I do know that it never hurts to try something new. Who would have thought there would be a market for brides trashing their wedding dresses? But there is a booming demand for it these days!

Here are some of my favorites from Jeremey's set:

Jeremy was so much fun to have on set and he did this awesome superman run amd it made him happy and woke him up for the rest of the shoot. We had a blast trying to capture it!

And just because I love doing anonymity shots when I am working with sexy pictures, I had to do something like this:

Last shot!

Hope you all enjoyed! Until next time...

Rebecca and Justin: Engagement Photo Sneak Peek

2009-09-16T19:57:00.002-04:00

Rebecca and Justin are getting married September 26th. Their wedding is just around the corner. We just did their engagement photos over labor day weekend and I've been so slow to blog the sneak peek from their session. I am trying to catch up on all of my editing so I've been a bad blogger and have missed a lot of things to blog recently but I will get them all blogged just as soon as I have a chance!

Rebecca and Justin are such a cute couple and they love one another so much. They were a joy to photograph and I cannot wait for their wedding.

For their engagement session, I got us into the awesome Ritz Ybor and had them dress in 50's attire. We even hired an amazing hair and make up artist, Amanda Craft to do Rebeccas hair and make-up in a pin up 50's style. Rebecca got these ultra cute dresses for the shoot and some red shoes for some pop of color (per my request because I just LOVE color).

Here are two sneak peek photos for now!!

What an awesome couple and an awesome venue to shoot in and doesn't Rebecca look hot?? Justin looks pretty darn good too :-)

Until next time...

Best engagement photos

2009-09-01T13:38:00.007-04:00

We just sent an 80 page, 10x10 album design off to be printed and bound. This one is a studio sample for us to show more of our work printed and we had such a great year with engagement sessions so we decided to make it an "Engagement Love" album. We featured six of our couples in the book design and put our favorite photos from each session in the collection.

Looking through them, we just love the variety and the moments captured. Seeing the best work put together in a collection just makes me feel good inside :-)

Here is a link to the smaller flip-book online version. Hope you enjoy it!

You can view the entire book by copying and pasting the following link into a new browser window:

http://albumonline.asukabook.com/album/?key=5ef003f02042

Alina's Trash the Dress : Sneak Peek

2009-08-31T19:49:00.002-04:00

We went to this awesome car junkyard to trash Alina's wedding dress. We went through so much to get this place to allow us to shoot there but we were so happy when the day finally came. Alina was such a trooper. It was a very hot, muggy day and we had to do the shoot mid-day because that's the only time we could get in for the shoot.

I never anticipated that all of the sand would cause such a hazy mist in the air. It made it so difficult to focus properly and made the images lack the pop that my photos normally have straight out of camera. But we used some off camera lighting to help fight through the sand mist a bit and then I really jazzed them up in photoshop.

We had such a great time shooting Alina. More of her fabulous Trash the Dress photos coming soon!!

BEFORE EDITING PHOTO

AFTER EDITING PHOTO

BEFORE EDITING PHOTO

AFTER EDITING PHOTO

Fighting the sand in the air was difficult but luckily, I knew I'd be able to fix it in photoshop. There was nothing more I could have done on set. I just love the way they turned out though and how needing to fix the hazy air pushed me that much harder to make these images pop!

More coming soon.. hope you enjoyed the sneak peek!

Until next time...

Upcoming Boudoir Marathon -Oct 24th or Nov 21st

2009-08-30T01:43:00.001-04:00

Hi Ladies,

I've done 3 boudoir marathons already this year and they just keep getting better and better. Along the way, my assistant Latanya and I have learned a tremendous amount and we just keep adding new things and raising the bar in the boudoir industry. We've been asked to branch out of our own local market and start traveling for our boudoir marathons. We're excited to implement this into our 2010 goals!

We're offering one final marathon for 2009. And we're going to do it just in time to be able to get the photos finished by or before Valentines Day. Married ladies can take advantage of this as a Valentines present or engaged ladies can hang on to the photos and reveal them on the wedding night. The possibilities are limitless and the choices are yours!

Normally, we'll take 7-10 people for our boudoir marathons but this one will be very limited to just 4 people.

Details: (and what's included)

- Limited to 4 ladies

- A full THREE hours of shooting time with us (We normally give 90-120 minutes only). The great part about this is it gives you more time to warm up and become comfortable in front of the camera and gives us a better chance to get some incredible shots.

- Myself and my assistant photographer. One of us will be shooting and the other will be controlling the lighting, ensuring you are lit beautifully and in the most flattering way.

- An online gallery for 90 days

- An 5x5 10 page photo book album (upgrades available at an extra cost)

- At least 20 fully edited, glamour retouched images for your album and also on a DVD.

- Gorgeous location for the shoot (to be determined)(Will either be in the Tampa area or in the Orlando area)

Please email me at PureEmotionsPhotography @ gmail.com with your name, telephone number, best time to reach you, and which of the above dates would work for you (please say both if both would work for you).

I will call you to discuss the details and pricing information.

First come, first serve. This is a special package only offered to 4 ladies and will be our last marathon of 2009 and the final chance to get boudoir pictures before Valentines Day.

We look forward to bringing out your inner sexy through our lens and bringing it to life.

Kori: Boudoir Reveal

2009-08-15T16:04:00.002-04:00

Kori is getting married to a wonderful man in January of 2010 and I will be shooting their wedding. As a surprise, Kori snuck the money to me for the boudoir marathon while her fiance was signing the wedding contract! He has absolutely no idea and he is just going to be so excited when he sees these photos. I know it's going to be so hard for Kori to keep them a secret for the next 5 months!

Coming soon: Christie and Sandra's boudoir reveals (hopefully within the next 5-8 days!!)

Without further ado.. hope you enjoy..

Kori thought I was crazy when I asked her to lay on a shelf for this next photo. I wanted her to just be like an object on the shelf and thought it was very fitting with the maids outfit. When I showed her and Latanya the photo on the camera, they both loved it!

and last, but not least!

Until next time.....

Rebecca and Walt: Wedding photo Reveal !

2009-07-28T01:27:00.004-04:00

I have been a bad blogger lately because I have been so busy shooting and trying to make editing deadlines but I want to share some things I've shot recently with everyone!

Rebecca and Walt's wedding took place on a rainy, stormy day, May 16th, 2009. They came to Florida for their destination wedding by the water and guests came from all over the place too. It would turn out to be fate that everyone happened to be staying at the hotel because let's just say that after the ceremony and before the reception, everyone was in severe need of a change of clothes!

Rebecca and Walt did a "first look" where they saw each other before the wedding. I've already blogged that so to see them just go to the first look category and take a peek.

Rebecca and Walt, we could not have asked for a better outcome from your wedding. The emotions, laughter and happiness you gave us put so much energy into the day. Your love for one another shone brightly through the clouds, thunder and lightning. We wish you the very best in your life and love for one another and we're truly honored we were able to capture your amazing day!

As always, there's tons of photos! I am horrible about updating my website so this is the best way for everyone to see mini-complete weddings.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

P.S. 2 more weddings and an engagement session to be blogged hopefully by tomorrow!

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These first few photos are right after we did the first look. Doing a first look allows the couple tons of time together to get photos with one another while they still look pretty! We also did all of the family formals before the ceremony and this allowed everyone to go straight to the reception and party!

Signing of the Ketubah before the commencement of their Jewish ceremony

Rebecca and Walt were married out on the beach area of the beautiful Grand Hyatt. Their reception was in the Hyatt's ballroom.

A very stormy ceremony

Everyone is still smiling though

And everyone got DRENCHED!

Breaking of the glass:

Reception time!!

They had orange lighting accenting the room. It truly was beautiful.

Since it poured on the ceremony, the DJ played "raindrops keep falling on my head.." for the couples grand entrance

Some of the awesome moments during family formals! I truly wish they could all be just like this:

And a couple of comments guests wrote in the guest book that struck me as funny!

The traditional Hora

I think some went up his nose. Poor guy! *giggles*

Bride down. I repeat, bride down. Poor Rebecca, she fell so much that day. But when she saw the photos, she just rolled in laughter.

The best man and Walt being oh so silly:

And there's nothing particularily amazing about these next couple shots except for the man in them. Onno was a sweet man who unfortunately passed away shortly after the wedding. I was so happy that we got so many great photos that had Onno in them as this was the last time many people ever saw him. May he rest in peace.

That's all folks. Until next time...

Danielle's Fabulous Boudoir Album

2009-07-22T16:48:00.003-04:00

We just ordered Danielle's Boudoir Album. I will be sure to post photos of the actual album when it comes in but I just wanted to share the layout with everyone right away because I know several of my ladies are getting or are planning on getting boudoir albums. There truly isn't any better way to present your boudoir photos than to give him a book that he can cherish forever.

This album is a 30 side album. It's going to be a coffee table album, hard cover with thin, glossy magazine style pages.

Danielle gave us pretty much free reign on her album design and it is guaranteed to be unique and stand apart from the rest.

For the cover, Danielle just wanted a simple black surface with special words.. "for my tiggerbear" What you are seeing here is a double layout. so imagine a fold line down the middle. The right side is the cover and the left side will be the backing to the book.

This next page is the first page in the book. There will be a blank white page on the left side and this photo will be on the right page.

The rest of these except for the last page are what is called "2 page spreads" Again, imagine a line perfectly down the middle. Each image you'll see is 2 pages, the left page and right page in the book.

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

Pages 8 and 9

Pages 10 and 11

Pages 12 and 13

Pages 14 and 15

Pages 16 and 17

Pages 18 and 19

Pages 20 and 21

Pages 22 and 23

-- too private to show -- :-)
__________________________________________

Pages 24 and 25

Pages 26 and 27

Pages 28 and 29

And page 30 (left page) right will be blank white.

I hope you enjoyed the layout. We customize all of our albums to be unique and special and we love making them for our clients!

Until next time..

Caprina and Carl: Engagement Photos : Reveal

2009-07-07T22:43:00.003-04:00

Caprina and Carl drove all the way from Jacksonville, Florida and spent the night in a hotel to do their engagement photos with us in Saint Petersburg, Florida. We went to some really awesome places and were able to find lots of color and cool lines to incorporate into the pictures. Caprina and Carl were so fun to be around and we had a blast shooting their engagement photos.

Here are some of my favorites from the day. Hope you enjoy!

Until next time...

June Boudoir Marathon - Sneak Peek

2009-07-01T15:58:00.002-04:00

As promised, I have a surprise for my clients. I've decided to wander out into unchartered territory and start offering boudoir sessions to men as well. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of shooting some amazing brides and I also snuck a couple of guys into the shoot to see how it would pan out.

I must say, we had so much fun with the challenge of shooting the guys as well and have decided to officially allow our clients to hire us for "Dude-oir" sessions!

Just like with our female boudoir, we only do classy, tasteful photography. Our objective is for grooms to be able to give their brides sexy photos on the wedding night as a present, just as we've been doing with the ladies.

If you'd like to hire us for a boudoir or a dude-oir session, just shoot us an email and we'd be more than happy to discuss everything with you.

Without further ado, here's a quick sneak peek of 5 gorgeous people! More photos of everyone coming in about a month!

Sandra

Christie

Kori

Jeremy

and.. Scott

Until next time....

Rebecca and Walt's First Look

2009-06-26T00:14:00.003-04:00

Lately, several of our couples have decided to put the age old superstition of seeing one another before the ceremony aside. We've been delighted to photograph what is known as "The First Look" for our couples.

Rebecca and Walt agreed to do a first look and it turned out amazing. We took Walt to a spot that was perfect for photographs and had him turn his back to the area Rebecca would be walking in from. As she sauntered down to him, she began to talk to him and it made for some great emotions! We were able to get more than 50 awesome photos of just Rebecca and Walt after the first look was over and then we got all of the family formals done before the cermony. After the ceremony was over, Rebecca and Walt were able to go straight into their reception and didn't have to keep their guests waiting. Everything was so much less stressful to get the photos done first and we couldn't be any happier with the results!

P.S. MASSIVE blog post coming from Rebecca and Walts amazing, emotion filled wedding! I have to choose the photos I want to post and there are SO MANY so it might take me a couple of days to narrow it down!

Without further ado, I present to you: Rebecca and Walt's FIRST LOOK!!!

More to come from Rebecca and Walt's wedding day very soon!

Caprina and Carl: Engagement Photos : Sneak Peek

2009-06-18T18:10:00.000-04:00

Caprina and Carl were so much fun to shoot! They drove all the way from Jacksonville to St. Pete to do their engagement session with me and I was so honored to have the pleasure of photographing them. We went to several different spots for their engagement session photos and we goofed around a bit and had a good time.

This is just a sneak peek taste. More to come soon!

Until next time...

Erin and Brett: Engagement Photos Part 1

2009-06-18T17:32:00.002-04:00

More to come soon!

Stay tuned for more amazing photos from Erin and Brett's engagement session soon!

Until next time...

Erin & Brett: Engagement Photo Sneak Peek

2009-06-01T02:24:00.004-04:00

Warning: Long Story!

Who knew that being an Engagement Photographer and wandering around downtown Tampa taking photos of an adorable couple would lead to the death of my Blackberry Curve cell phone? Haha.

A few months back, Erin and Brett booked us to shoot their engagement and wedding photos. When they walked in the door to our home to look at more of my pictures, Brett noticed one of our guitars in the corner of the room. Before they left, he was playing the guitar and singing! This was during our first meeting. Erin looked at him with love as he sang and it was at that moment that I knew they were the perfect couple for my style. Quirky, fun, outgoing, unafraid and in love. Their wedding is on June 20th!! I can't wait to shoot it!

Okay, so back to the death of my phone. Erin and Brett and myself and Latanya all met up tonight for their engagement photos. It was truly a day of mishaps but filled with fun. I've been sick with a bad cold for the past 8 days now. Luckily, Latanya is an awesome assistant/ photographer/ best friend/ everything one could ever want or need by their side kind of person! So, she was able to carry most of the heavy stuff and she got the shooting started off while I took it slow.

We started out shooting in a parking garage for a grunge kind of look but unfortunately, the air circulation in there wasn't very good so we didn't get many shots because Brett starting sweating really bad and turned pale in the face and his eyes looked bloodshot. I was so scared, I forgot I was sick! I gave him a bottle of ice water from my cooler and Erin cranked the AC in the car and he started feeling better! Whew!

So, we went outside and luckily it was fairly overcast so not anywhere near as hot as it could have been! Yay! So, we start taking more photos and we stumble across this really awesome metal, silver statue/ structure thing-a-ma-bob. It's actually in water and surrounded by water but there are these tiny steps all around it that you can walk on. So, we get them to pose around it and we keep snapping photos.

So then I lay on the steps on the edge of the water across from where Erin and Brett are sitting by the statue and start taking photos.

To give you some perspective, here is a shot of me laying across the water. Yep that girl with the big ole' booty and hips is me! lol. I so would never share this photo if it didn't tie the story together. Certainly not one of my most flattering moments but I digress:

So, there I am shooting away when I realize that this is the place that I can get my signature shot. On every engagement session I do, I try to get the couple in front of some sort of large structure with leading lines and I put the camera by their feet and shoot up on them having them look at each other. Looking down is never flattering so I have them look up and at each other. So, I realized this is the place to do it. Only problem is that there's nowhere for me to be close to their feet without being in the picture unless.... well unless I get in the water!

So, I slip my flip flops off and as I go to step into the water from my laying down position, my cell phone slips right out of my pocket and plops into the water! I honestly thought there was a fish in there because it sounded like when a fish jumps out of the water. haha. Anyway, I of course, continued shooting and didn't make a big deal out of it. It's just a phone. If I had dropped my camera in the water or a memory card with photos on it, I might have actually cried tears. haha

So, here is the shot that costed me my cell phone. (sorry, Latanya didn't get the photo of me in the water. She was too busy taking my sim card and battery out of my phone and trying to dry it for me while I continued shooting)!

and in Black and White just for you, Brett!

More to come soon! Hope you enjoyed the photo and the story. This photo will earn a spot on my website soon and will always bring back memories of Erin and Brett and the cell phone tragedy. May it rest in peace.

Danielle's Boudoir session - 2 more sneak peek photos!

2009-05-28T12:40:00.002-04:00

I just couldn't resist the urge to post 2 more sneak peek photos up from Danielle's boudoir session!

I have so many girls who have booked boudoir sessions with me and keep checking my blog to see new pictures from the boudoir side of my work that I thought it would be nice to give you all a little something extra to see this time around!

Hope you enjoy!

Until next time...

Amy & Tolga Engagement Photo Reveal

2009-05-26T18:14:00.005-04:00

Shooting Amy & Tolga's engagement photos was such a blast! They were so natural with one another. If I told them to just snuggle and talk to each other, they did so very well and it brought out such real emotions. I love when couples genuinely are into one another and filled with laughter without needing much direction. It helpes move the session along so quickly and we were able to fit so many ideas and locations into the shoot! We were able to go all over UT and spent quite some time in Ybor city as well!

Amy & Tolga, we can't wait to shoot your wedding!

Here are my favorite photos from the shoot! Hope you enjoy!

Tolga said something funny and made Amy laugh. We just love the way her cute little nose crinkles up when she laughs!

We snuck into a classroom to get some photos. I just love the progression of these shots. I couldn't pick just 1 or 2 because I wanted to show the story behind it!

Shame on you kids for passing notes in class!

That priceless smile as she opened the note!

Should I say yes?

Hmm, maybe I'll say no...

Tolga is clearly sweating over Amy's decision

What the heck... I might as well say...

YES!!

What a beautiful ring!

Private moments..

I just love that the taxi cab drove into the shot. It added so much to the photo!

The flames were nowhere near as hot as the passion between these two!

A couple individual shots..

Good night!

Until next time...

Eve and Dan: Engagement Photo Reveal

2009-05-23T00:59:00.003-04:00

I've told the story already so if you scroll down just a couple of posts to Eve and Dan's Sneak Peek Photos, you can read all about them and how they met!

Eve and Dan, Photographing both of you together was so much fun! I cannot wait to shoot both of your wedding ceremonies!

(P.S... I animated a couple of photos where I couldn't choose between black and white or color. I learned animation tonight!! Very excited. It's like I found a new toy. Haha)

Hope you enjoy!

I told Dan to grab her butt and he did! Haha. It resulted in this amazingly funny moment:

So into each other!

Oooooo animation!:

A real moment.. I just love when my couples get lost in their own world during a shoot!

More animation photos!

Animation!

One of my favorite photos. I spent so much time editing this photo. Look for a before and after of it soon!

So sassy!

Sorry ladies, this stud is taken!

Looking for his beautiful woman:

Fierce!

Relaxing at the end of a long shoot!

Last call!

Until next time...

Sneak Peek - Rebecca and Walt's wedding

2009-05-18T15:59:00.003-04:00

Rebecca and Walt came to Florida this past weekend for their destination beach wedding. Unfortunately, it's been pouring buckets every day here for the past week and their wedding day was no exception. The ceremony was scheduled for 7pm. At 5pm it was storming and then cleared up so we thought that maybe we got lucky. But about 15 minutes before the ceremony began, it started thundering and lightning. Rebecca and Walt decided to get married out by the water, rain or shine so off we went.

For the first 10 minutes, the rain held off but the thunder roared. More than 100 guests came in from all over the place to witness the ceremony and union of these two incredible people. Midway through the ceremony, the rain began to come down, first in a light drizzle but then it poured! Everyone was completely soaked but nobody left. Everyone stayed and watched as Rebecca and Walt shared their first kiss as husband and wife. Everyone clapped and laughed and was filled with joy even as they were being drenched. It truly was an amazing experience and one that will never be forgotten. For about an hour afterwards, many people walked around in towels (luckily their wedding was at the beach area of a hotel and there were plenty of pool towels that they brought and gave to the guests.

Just one photo for now... the shot we waited in the pouring down rain, risking our camera gear to capture. More photos coming later!

Until next time..

Meow, Meow, Meow

2009-05-15T04:10:00.002-04:00

My oldest cat, Precious is one of the sweetest cats ever. She runs up to me the moment I come in the door and rubs her side against my hand and purrs. She loves attention and she's spoiled rotten. I love her to pieces though. I realized I never share photos just from my life so I thought I'd start sharing photos of other things I take pictures of from time to time.

My sweet Precious...

Until next time..

Eve and Dan's Engagement - 1 more photo!

2009-05-14T16:06:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to share another photo I just finished editing from Eve and Dan's amazing engagement session. I thought you might like to see a photo that actually has them and a plane in it :-)

And lots of color! I just love it!

More to come..

Until next time...

Tampa, Florida : Eve and Dan's Engagement Photo Sneak Peek

2009-05-13T01:17:00.005-04:00

Eve and Dan met on an airplane. They were seated next to one another and by the end of the flight to their destination, the sparks had flown and they knew there was something special there between them. From the moment we sat down together at a Starbucks, several months back, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that these two people radiated the stuff that love is made out of.

During our entire consultation, they talked about how they met, how they fell in love, their wedding plans, etc. and they would look at one another with such heartfelt love and warmth. Talk about sparkling eyes, grins that cannot be wiped off of precious faces and a love that could shine light in the darkest room.

It was only fitting that we would do their engagement session with airplanes since that's how they met. We got access to a private airport and we used a helicopter and several planes. We had so much fun. I can honestly say they were my first couple to ever "make out"!! And I mean, make out! Some times, we had to break them up. Isn't love sweet?

Normally, I post 2-3 photos in a sneak peek and they actually have the people in them! Haha. Well, I just got done editing another session and wanted to get one up real quick from this session since their photos are next for me to edit.

The photo isn't of Eve and Dan. Sorry! It is however, a cool photo that was never meant to happen. We had just walked up to the helicopter to take our first shots. My assistant, Latanya had set the strobe light on and turned on the pocketwizard and told me to turn the one on the camera on and to do a test to make sure they were communicating. I just held the camera down by my stomach and pressed the shutter button and snapped a photo to make sure the strobe would fire. The resulting shot came from that test fire that for all I knew was just of the ground. The portion of a person whose arm is framing the flare would be Dan. :-)

More to come soon!

Until next time...

Tampa Florida: Wedding Photographer : Jamee and Alex!

2009-05-10T13:39:00.003-04:00

I've never blogged a wedding before because I always wind up with way too many favorites to narrow it down! But since I update my blog way more than my website, I thought I would share my most recent wedding here on my blog.

This was my first Jewish wedding. I had never attended, nor photographed a Jewish wedding before this one. I read up a lot on the traditions and the order things would happen in so I could be as well prepared as one could be without ever having attended one before. It was fun and different and I had a great time!

P.S. There's going to be a ton of photos!!

Jamee and Alex have been such a pleasure to work with since the beginning. The love that bonds them together is exceptional and I loved watching them feed off of one another.

The wedding was planned as a beach wedding with the reception to follow at the Pelican Pointe Country Club. Unfortunately, mother nature didn't agree with the plans the bride and groom had made and it stormed the entire day, leading up to the ceremony. So, as a last minute decision, the ceremony was moved into a room of the country club. Despite the set backs, Jamee and Alex had a great time and their love for one another shone through.

Here are a TON of my favorite photos. You might want to grab some popcorn! :-)

The ladies getting ready

Jamee getting the final touches on her make-up

Jamee let me take off with her dress when the rain cleared up for a few minutes and there was this old archway outside against a wall so my assistant and I grabbed it and moved it so we could hang the dress from it to get this shot:

Jamee's bouquet

I took a ton of photos of their rings and I narrowed it down to 3 to show you. See, I couldn't choose just 1!

A couple more getting ready shots:

Jamee and Alex signing the Ketubah:

The boys are always ready before the girls so we grabbed a couple of impromptu shots of the boys before the ceremony began:

I have to admit, I was slightly nervous when the ceremony started. I didn't want to miss anything and nobody really knew the order that the ceremony was going to go in. So, I just kept taking pictures. The nerves were a good thing because I was extremely focused! This ceremony went by blazingly fast. I think it lasted about 8-12 minutes total!

The Rabbi blessed everything before passing it on to the bride and groom and said a few words about it's significance.

And then he blessed the glass for the breaking of the glass:

Married at last!!

Boys will be boys - I just love when I can get them all to jump really high!

A couple minutes alone with Jamee and Alex before the ceremony out on the golf course!

Toast time! Jamee lost her father not that long ago and the toasts were both joyous and emotional for her.

And Alex was there to hold her hand:

The best man brought his speech on his cell phone. Notice the bridesmaids giggling about it in the background! So cute!

And then grandpa (whose swagger and style just tickled us all night), gave his toast. (I think he danced with almost every lady in the room that night!)

The girls bustling up Jamee's dress to prepare her for her first dance:

What a beautiful bride:

Dance time!

Everyone prepared me that when the Hora started, I should be up on a chair and that everyone would go nuts. So, up in a chair and bracing myself, I went. This was the most fun part of the day. I have another Jewish wedding coming up this Saturday and I cannot wait for the Hora again!

Alex's mother and father dancing and having a good time:

The DJ got out on the floor and busted a move and taught everyone a line dance:

What a stud muffin!

I thought this was a cute moment. The maid of honor was showing Jamee a photo she had taken.

Mwah!

I don't usually give much direction on a wedding day because I prefer to let moments happen naturally but we were about to leave and I asked Alex to pick Jamee up and run around the dance floor with her:

The end:

Hope you enjoyed them! There's tons more photos that include more of the guests dancing, garter toss, bouquet toss, etc. So, if you really want to see more, just go to the client proof gallery on my website at www.PureEmotionsPhotography.com and enter the username: moses2009 and password: wedding

Until next time......

Tampa Florida : Engagement Photographer - Amy and Tolga Sneak Peek

2009-05-09T14:18:00.002-04:00

Amy first called me a couple months ago and booked me for her wedding in October.

We got together recently for their engagement session and we had a blast. We went all over University of Tampa and Ybor City to get some great shots of them. Amy and Tolga are meant to be together. Their love for one another shone through all day long. I just love photographing people who truly are into one another.

Amy asked me to get a couple photos edited quickly so she could use them for her Save the Dates so I picked a couple of more traditional shots and edited them and decided to share them here as a sneak peek.

More to come and let me tell you, there are some hot, amazing photos awaiting me to edit them!

Hope you enjoy!

Until next time....

Tampa Florida : Boudoir Photographer : Boudoir Teaser

2009-05-07T15:57:00.004-04:00

I did an amazing boudoir session with a beautiful girl. She rented out the penthouse suite at a fabulous hotel in downtown Tampa. She was so nervous which made her photos that much sexier with that semi vulnerable look to them.

I am still loving shooting boudoir photos! I feel I really have a niche for it and the sessions are so much fun for me. I have a boudoir marathon coming up in June. It's a 3 day one and I only have 2 or 3 spots left! I am so excited and can't wait for it.

Hope you enjoy the teaser photo! :-)

Until next time...

Tampa Florida : Engagement Photographer - Jamee and Alex's Engagement Reveal

2009-05-05T13:11:00.003-04:00

I am so behind on posting these. Jamee and Alex came over this past Saturday to see all of their photos (engagements and wedding) for the first time. I didn't post any of them on my blog before then because I wanted it to be a bigger reveal when they came out here to see them.

They sat on the couch and I showed them the DVD music slideshow that they had purchased first. I love showing photos with music on the big screen television. It has such a deeper impact than pressing the next arrow button or clicking the mouse on the computer through 300+ photos.

Anyway, they both were so happy with all of their photos and Alex just kept saying "wow" often times when certain images would pop up on the screen. Every time he did that, it made me smile real big. Being a photographer is so rewarding and I love being in the room with my clients when they see their photos for the first time!

Here are my favs from their engagement session. Alex is a fireman so I drove out to their city to take these photos so we could incorporate the fire truck into their session.

Their wedding photos are coming up soon!

Hope you enjoy!

Until next time.......

Erica and Brandon - Reveal !!

2009-04-29T12:42:00.004-04:00

A while back, I posted a sneak peek of Erica and Brandon with the following text:

"Erica and Brandon were actually married almost two years ago. Unfortunately they didn't have a good photographer and were left unhappy with their wedding photographs. Erica first contacted me back in January and we just did their shoot tonight. They got dressed back up in their wedding attire and we went all over and got some amazing photos of them."

The photos have been edited for some time now but I have been slacking on updating my blog because I am super busy editing photos and doing shoots and barely have time to breathe. Better to be busy and have a lot of work than to be wishing I had more work though, right? :-)

Erica and Brandon came over and chose their photos to print last week and they just loved them! She sent me an amazing review and I just wanted to share it with my blog readers. Here it is:

"I did not get any photos that I was proud to show off from my wedding. My husband agreed to re-shoot our wedding photos with another photographer. This was a big decision as I obviously did not pick right the first time. I searched through a lot of potential photographers, but nothing jumped out at me until I came across Pure Emotions Photography's webpage. The pictures spoke for themselves. Once we booked Alicia, she was in constant communication and everything went effortless. The shoot was professional and Alicia and her assistant were amazing to work with. We had fun on our shoot! When I got my pictures back they were BEYOND expectation. I LOVED THEM! Every single one! I highly recommend Alicia at Pure Emotions. She over-delivers with what she offers. Honestly, you won't be disapointed. "

Isn't that sweet? We loved working with you two lovebirds as well!

Okay, you want to see the photos, right? Okay, okay, I won't make you wait any longer. Here they are! Hope you enjoy!

Until next time.....

Oh and I am so excited.....

2009-04-22T13:02:00.003-04:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet!! The couple that I did the cool engagement session with this past weekend at the private airport hired me months ago to shoot their wedding in Florida. Their wedding is in October and I can't wait to shoot it because they are so in love and so much fun to be around! But they decided that they're going to get married first in St. Thomas in August. They were going to use this one guy who was a local photographer in St. Thomas but the more they thought about it, the more they couldn't imagine getting photos from anyone but me so they hired me to shoot their St. Thomas wedding too!

They're flying me in for 3 days and we're going to go all over the island and get some amazing pictures of them. This will be a small wedding, just them and their parents for the caribbean wedding so we'll have tons of time to go off and find unique locations on the island and really get some amazing shots. The bride is going to get another dress that we can trash there too so that will be so much fun! I love travel and I love different destinations and this is the great start to me being able to travel even more to more exotic locations for weddings! Some days, I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I am one of the luckiest people on the planet to have a gift, artistically and to be able to make a full time living doing what I love.

Until next time.....

Slacking on posting!

2009-04-22T12:36:00.002-04:00

I am so sorry I haven't posted any pictures in a couple of weeks. I've been doing so many shoots and trying to get them all edited! But photos are coming soon!

I really need to update my website too with new work. I've done some really amazing things recently. I am in the midst of upgrading my website to full screen images so I am designing a new site and choosing new images for it. Hopefully within a month, that will go live and will replace my current site and it will have tons of fun, new photos on it!

I just have to say I am loving boudoir sessions! I have been having a blast doing them. I have an upcoming marathon with several girls and can't wait for that. There's a couple spots still open if you or someone you know wants to bring their inner sexy out for their hubby!

I just did an amazing engagement shoot on Sunday at a private airport! That was total fun. Color, planes, a couple that is SO IN LOVE. Details and photos coming soon!

Until next time.....

Shoot with Beckstead

2009-04-02T20:06:00.005-04:00

I just spent 3 amazing days with the infamous David Beckstead who has been named one of the top ten wedding photographers. David is known for his strong compositional elements and style. 13 of us listened to him talk about how he got started and learned more about him and where he came from. I just have to say that he is one of the most humble people I've ever met. He's so down to earth, a true country boy at heart and he is himself no matter what.

On the 2nd day together, we went out with a real bride and groom and David showed everyone how he uses lines and light in his compositions. It was interesting and informative. Everyone took turns taking pictures of things the way David saw them and when I had my turn, I'd wander off to the sidelines and start looking for other things, keeping his basic concepts in mind. I looked for my own lines, shapes and compositional elements within the same scene. I wanted to make sure I was shooting for myself, for my style and my brand which involves angles and color and telling a story with my imagery. So, I tried really hard to combine his amazing knowledge of composition with my style.

EDIT: A couple of people have emailed me and asked if I would recommend this workshop for beginners. Out of 13 of us that took the workshop, only 4 or 5 people shoot weddings full time. Some of the newbies got some good stuff, some better than others in my opinion. I'd suggest that you be comfortable with your camera settings, that you know how to select an Auto Focus point in your camera and that you understand ISO and how it relates to your shutter speed and your aperture.

I didn't need to ask about the technical stuff because I already understood the technical stuff. I really strayed from the group a lot because I didn't want to fight for the same image that everyone else was getting. My favorite shots from the day are the ones where I separated myself from the pack but again, I kept the basic concepts of using lines and light to add to the overall compositional effect of the photographs. Interesting compositions and angles has always been something I've loved doing anyway. I'd say this simply helped me to enhance my imagery which was the reason I took the workshop.

I hope that helps those of you who have emailed me.

Here are some of my favorites that I've been able to edit thus far. I hope you enjoy!

Until next time...

More editing fun & Sneak Peek Combo

2009-03-27T18:00:00.004-04:00

Danielle and Patrick were a pleasure to shoot. I love alternative couples and people in general. Yes, that is a wedding dress. It's just a black one. :-)

This is Danielle and Patrick's Sneak Peek and also a before and after. I did a lot of work to this photo and was so proud of it that I just had to post the before photo to show the difference and to show what can be done and how a photo can once again be transformed into art.

I hope you enjoy..

BEFORE PHOTO....

AFTER PHOTO:

Until next time...

A before and after

2009-03-27T17:16:00.004-04:00

A big part of what my clients get when they book me is a finished product. I love to take a photo and turn it into art. Some things simply cannot be done in camera even with a full studio set up on location which is not the easiest thing in the world to do and carrying all that stuff around and setting it up takes too much precious time.

This photo is a before and after from Jamee and Alex's Engagement session.

Hope you enjoy!

BEFORE PHOTO:

AFTER PHOTO:

Until next time...

Sneak Peek - Jamee and Alex Engagements!

2009-03-27T16:49:00.003-04:00

Jamee and Alex hired me a few months ago to shoot their wedding on 3-29-09 which is only 2 days away! I did their engagement session about two weeks ago and just wanted to show a couple of photos from it.

Alex selflessly risks his life as a fireman and when he told me this on the phone, I immediately asked if we could use the fire department and fire truck for their engagement shoot. I agreed to drive the two hours to where they live to use the fire truck.

When we showed up, they pulled the fire truck out and it was massive! It's a million dollar truck so we had to be careful not to hurt it. :-). It was one of the biggest fire trucks I've ever seen. He told us it's the one they use for really big fires.

Jamee looked so adorable and had such a beautiful smile. She looked fabulous and was such a good sport with everything we asked her to do. I can't wait to shoot their wedding in 2 days!

Here's my photo sneak peek for Jamee and Alex! I hope you enjoy!

Until next time....